PARK CITY '99: "The Blair Witch Project" Screams at Midnight

[From Split Screen to Sundance, Cannes to magazine covers, “The Blair WitchProject” finally opens officially in ten markets today, after a specialmidnight screening last night in New York. Judgement day has arrived forthe Florida filmmaking team and everyone in the independent industry iswondering what will happen next. Rumor has it that distributor Artisan islooking for a $20 million gross.

Since we first interviewed Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick at Sundance’99, much has happened. They received the Prix de la Jeunesse at Cannes,joining the ranks of filmmakers like Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing”) andDon McKellar (“Last Night”). Coverage on the film has appeared or will soonappear, in publications as diverse as Spin, American Cinematographer,Premiere, Interview, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times. And prompted byArtisan, the filmmakers shot a new conclusion after a New Jersey testscreening audience was confused by the ending — but then went back totheir original. (For close viewers of the film, an added interview in thebeginning now helps make sense of the eerie finale.) But above all else,the essence of what makes “The Blair Witch Project” one of the mostintriguing, original indies of the year remains the same.

indieWIRE movie critic Danny Lorber spoke to the filmmakers before Sundance’99 about the inspiration and unique process behind their much talked aboutdebut film. – ed.]

Sophisticated and genuinely scary horror movies simply haven’t been madeby filmmakers working at any level of the film industry in almost twodecades. While the eighties brought the silly, gruesome and macabre“Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th” series, the latenineties brought us “Scream” and all the wink-wink, movie-savvymock-horror films that the original “Scream” inspired.

While these films are occasionally frightening, they are so knowing andexaggerated in mood that the fright we feel is completely fleeting. Oneprobably has to go back to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of “TheShining” when naming the last American-made horror movie that reallyfreaked out smart audiences to the point that the film stayed with themfor days, causing bad dreams and rattled nerves.

Out of no where, however, comes a new and disarmingly small Americanindie titled “The Blair Witch Project” that’s set for a midnightscreening at Sundance and may just be the most original and potenthorror movie seen on screens in nearly twenty years.

A BRILLIANT SET-UP

Shot almost entirely on video, the debut feature from Orlando, Floridadirector-screenwriter-editors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick beginswith a written explanation of the film we’re about to see. It’s toldthat three student documentary filmmakers went to Blair, Maryland tomake a film about a witch myth that has plagued the fictionalMid-eastern town for almost a decade. While shooting the film, it’sexplained, the filmmakers disappeared and were never heard from again.However, the filmmakers’ footage was found, and the film that followswill be a presentation of that footage. While this introduction clearlymakes it clear that “The Blair Witch Project” is not a real documentary,it’s an intriguing opening — and without giving too much away about afilm that screams for fresh discovery, the film begins innocuously –even charmingly – as three aspiring filmmakers head out excitedly towork on their first project. The opening scenes are nothing other thanlight – but they’re very watchable — it’s as if we’re watching afriend’s videotape of a weird adventure he or she took.

The lightness of the opening scenes is taken with a grain of salt. Afterall, we know that things aren’t going to turn out well for the threecollege-aged filmmakers we are watching. When the trio heads to thewoods to locate an old witch cemetery – things begin to get weird. Wesee no witches, special effects or charred bodies. But in subtle ways adarkness begins to linger over both the characters and the film — andthe film’s mood grows in panic and desperation quietly, before we knowwhat has hit us.

INSPIRATION

Sanchez and Myrick graduated from the Central Florida University filmprogram six years ago, and they have lived in Orlando since then,working on film and television crews while thinking up their ownprojects on the side. “We were inspired by low budget